142 Comments

Very beautiful, Buddy, and a tad ominous. The blues of sky with a band of light and water with a shimmer draw me in, particularly the water. That dark mass of boat in the center cuts the scene.

Heather your week of letters are among the work for review today. As the granddaughter of immigrants who escaped anti-Semitism, ghettos and pogroms, the divisions between North and South in this country never captured my mind as did the racism and discrimination. My early inclination to Civil Rights was natural.

This time contains threats to us in ways that go to the core. You and subscribers of LFAA represent a shore of support, experience and exchange both ragged and dear. I am grateful. Thank you all.

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Yes this 'shore of support' helps us to venture out into the often rough waters of life.

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Fern stay safe as Henri arrives in NYC.

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So thoughtful of you, Richard. Thank you. I think we'll be okay. More rain ahead.

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I agree, Fern. The similarities with Germany during the 30’s at times can be quite scary.

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Yes, Connie, Hitler's 'ecological crisis' and Reagan's/Trump's/The Republican's World are connected. Historian, Timothy Snyder, has strengthened my sense of this. Sometime next week, I plan to address it in a comment. Please stay well as we engage.

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Look forward to seeing that.

It seems to me that all fascist autocracies are essentially the same:

1. A populist autocrat,

2. A conspiracy of amoral political opportunists,

3. A complex and widespread civic problem,

4. An easy scapegoat.

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Isabel Wilkerson also captures the comparison between Germany and the racism deep in our roots in Chaste. Stay well and safe.

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Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson

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Yes! Caste!

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Well said, Fern.

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Good cheer to you, Sally, and the fine state of Vermont, Salud! Fern

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Preciously beautiful! Rest well! Peace! So deserved! You and Buddy are an awesome team, uplifting ever so many people in ways far beyond you might imagine. Let our gratitude just soak into all you are about, perhaps as a reservoir of buoyant energy upon which to draw. Sending love, admiration, appreciation and gratitude!🙏🏽💐

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Thank you Katherine!

Beautifully written! And FELT💖

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Ah, so beautiful. Thanks, Buddy, the beauty you capture and that Heather shares lifts me (and many others) up. After the last few brutal weeks news-wise, work-wise, and having my kiddo start back to school with conditions being what they are where we live, it brings me a moment of peace to see the miracle of our amazing planet witnessed by your talented eye. Stay safe with the weather headed your way.

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Heather What a beautifully tranquil photo as we in Long Island await the landing of Hurricane Henri. You and Buddy provide us shelter in a most special world, whatever is occurring ‘out there.’ I am 87 and recall Senator Moynihan saying: YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN OPINIONS, BUT NOT YOUR OWN FACTS. Ah, those were the days. I raise my glass to Margaret Chase Smith, who had Joe McCarthy’s number from the start.

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I think we need to face up to the fact that techniques of manipulation and deception--a la Edward Bernays, et seq--have far outrun the teaching of how to learn and think. How else to understand that in these times people do "have their own facts."

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Many of Buddy's photos can be in sets of postcards and offer photographic retreats as the Maine photographic workshop . I finally had time to watch your award from Francis Perkins Center since the copy was made and your information so unique and great examples. And your Mom served in the army? You are so young i was wondering was she deployed to Vietnam? . I think President Nixon opened relations with China in 1972. Dr. Richardson thank u for all your efforts to be Historically factual

AND I believe LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN HAVE created the most ethical and amazing people who really appreciate your courageous approach to historical facts or in the last years hysterical facts. LFA SO VERY COOOOL AND AMAZING,

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That is a beautiful photo. Thank you to Buddy! And thank you Heather for your amazing letters that tie our history to our present. I learn so much from your historical knowledge and the relationship to our current state. Unfortunately so many either ignore or don’t choose to learn from past mistakes. Our Hospitals in many parts of the country are at capacity and in a very real threat of collapse. And it’s all preventable. The unvaccinated make up 99% of Covid hospitalizations in the country. Many areas have beds but not enough nurses to take care of the very high acuity patients

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So many nurses are burning out and leaving. It is so hard to have at least one or two patients die every shift you work. And dying without family with them. Just an IPad or phone on FaceTime. It is preventable. Please do what you can to convince your family and friends to get vaccinated. It’s heartbreaking now to see so many critically ill children with Covid who are still ineligible for the vaccine. But could be prevented if the people around them wear masks and get vaccinated.

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Karen, RN, may I share? This important message needs to be repeated, and repeated. Thank You.

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Please do Mary Pat. Thank You!

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While we are expressing our gratitude to Heather for keeping us informed of what people have experienced and survived before, I would thank you for your nursing. I am so angry that your lives are endangered, even more than the general public, by people with no sense of responsibility to others. Their ignorance and stubbornness will result in all of us infected, and many more dead, before the virus circles the planet several times. Frankly, I think health care workers would be justified in advising people to go home and take care of themselves if they had refused to be vaccinated. This could and should have been so different!

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On Aug 16th, the UT Dept of Emergency Medicine & the Memphis ED Medical Directors sent a letter to the local Memphis/Shelby Co. mayors informing them of the dire situation in medical care created by COVID hospitalizations. They were told that they may have to begin triaging patients for care very soon. “To be clear, we may be unable to provide timely care to everyone and will have to make choices about delivering care to patients based on the probability of survival.” This affects not only COVID patients but also heart attack, stroke, accident & trauma victims. How many would die bc of this situation? And, if triaging between vaccinated & non-vaccinated COVID patients who would be selected for care? This is not a choice of personal freedom. If you choose not to be vaccinated and aren’t totally quarantining yourself from others, you’re endangering lives.

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Brenda, this is tragic news. Such darkness is disastrous, which we are working hard to change. Please stay well. Peace.

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Because TN’s governor has been, at best, wishy washy on this subject. He wants to be re-elected. Knox County’s mayor has been downright hostile.

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I agree. At the risk of sounding/being callous, I wish healthcare providers would be instructed to refuse to treat those who refuse to be vaccinated and to wear masks. Their selfish stupidity and willful ignorance is endangering the rest of us and made the virus afflict people far longer than it would have had they gotten their shots and worn masks.

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One hospital in Texas is now considering triaging OUT the unvaccinated, as ICUs are overwhelmed. Wish there was a way to triage out murderous Republican governors.

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It is a mystery. They don’t trust science and medicine enough to get the vaccine. But when they get sick with Covid they trust and expect us to treat them and make them well again.

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Well said

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How did you weather your hurricane?

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Fine thanks! Lost power for about 11 hours and had a couple tears in our mala sombra (like a shade sail).

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Morning Daria. The malansombra can be fixed or replaced. You can’t, fab Daria!

Salud!

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Salud!

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So glad you are safe!

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I'm glad to hear that. One of the fellow commenters here sent their good wishes yesterday and I was glad to see you on here today!

Currently, we (my wife, her sister and her husband) are planning a trip through an academic travel company for this January; we will start and end in Merida.

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I'm sorry I missed yesterday's comment from a well wisher!

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Wow!! Let me know when you'll be here and perhaps we can meet!

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Thank you to you and Buddy for sharing your words and pictures with us. Looking at the world through your lens provides me with much needed clarity. I appreciate you both.

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Thank you, Dr. Richardson. You remind me that we are always creating history. It’s a stellar guidepost.

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Be careful in the hurricane that will be a tropical storm when it finally passes you.

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Looks like all we're going to get from Mass on up in New England is rain. Albany NY is going to get more than Boston (which may or may not be saying much), but the action appears to be bypassing Maine.

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Thank you as always. I love the photos as much as the letters!

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Buddy has a tremendous eye. Thank you for sharing his gift with us - please thank him for giving us a glimpse of his world.

I hope you were able to get a good night's sleep. Take the time to rest and restore yourself - it's not a luxury but a necessity.

Have a peaceful Sunday, all.

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Here's hoping for a peaceful Sunday for you as well.

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Thank you for sending Buddy's wonderful pictures. They are most beautiful and have a wonderful calming effect. God Bless

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❤️ Rest well! Take care of yourself! We really appreciate all you work and letters! Thank you!

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Rest easy. Thank you, for all that you do!

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Like two ships passing…

Good morning to Buddy and goodnight to you.

May Henri not hammer your shores too severely and may your harbor be safe.

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Batten down the hatches. Wishing safety, power, and no flooding to everyone in Henri's path. Was Heather planning to go to Boston on Sunday? Safe passage! Storm tracker:

https://twitter.com/tropicalupdate/status/1429230058204434436?s=20

"Henri is forecast to make landfall in New England on Sunday. The last time New England received a direct hit by a hurricane was 30 years ago, with Hurricane Bob. Here’s a look at past historic hurricanes that have impacted that region since colonial days."

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1429229221356916739?s=20

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We have some amazing 8 x 10 old photos of a lovely and very sturdy looking barn that was destroyed in the hurricane of 1938 in Newton Mass. The historic house, in which my dad and his brothers lived much of their youth, was spared and later became a beloved and highly regarded restaurant for 49 years, The Pillar House. After Tom Larsen, the restauranteur, announced his retirement and the imminent closing of the Pillar House in 2001, my dad arranged for our whole family to have a lovely dinner there, something he had always wanted us to do and my mom finally gave the green light to spend the money to do it just days before the closure. We had a wonderful time that evening! You would never have known the place was about to shut down. And less than a month later, mom died and we all were so grateful she was able to give that last gift to dad. In 2003, the house was taken by the state by eminent domain, sold for $1 to the Brown family, who paid to disassemble, move and reassemble and attach it to their home a few miles away as an addition. Chronicle did a story on it at the time, and my dad got to go visit it in its new spot before he died. I remember him telling us stories of that hurricane, which of course they had no real warning about back then, and how flooded the Charles River became. He was 15 years old and it clearly made a very deep impression on him.

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My uncle, my mother's brother, was at his parents' home at Westboro State Hospital, and told me stories of roof slates flying through the air and scores of mature trees going down. My grandfather was the superintendent of the hospital so I like to joke that my mother, born 1920, grew up in a mental hospital.

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Wow, the Perseverance House! How lovely for your family to have had that dinner, and that the house lives on with another family.

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